Carlos Tavares, Chairman of the Managing Board of PSA Peugeot Citroen, says he has no plans to close Vauxhall's UK plants and considers them "a good thing and a strategic opportunity," should Britain decide to go for a hard Brexit.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that Carlos Tavares said he was glad not to have a plant in Britain, because it made things more simple. But speaking at the Geneva Motor Show today, Tavares said: "I am telling you that it is a strategic opportunity."

"In the event of a hard Brexit," he said, "the fact that we have a UK footprint supplying the UK market with significant custom duties all around would be a good thing, don't you think?"

The Luton-based firm thrives on its British manufacturing heritageCredit:
NEIL HALL/Reuters

The mercurial Portuguese car making boss also agreed that building in the UK left Vauxhall stronger in its appeal to UK buyers. "I think it is true, there is always a sales and marketing potential in local sourcing for local sales," he said.

Tavares said that Opel/Vauxhall had been making losses in Europe for over a decade (which meant that it "is unsustainable") and he thought that General Motors has done a significant part of the turnaround, but "while they were on the right track... it could not be completed last year.

"Our job is to continue with the momentum," he said, "and accelerate that momentum.'

He dismissed questions about PSA's vulnerability to an economic downturn in the next six to eight years before it has realised the estimated €1.7bn in cost savings that are required to bring the whole company into sustainable profit.

"I would prefer that we don't speculate on the future," he said. "The worst can always happen, but we are fighting for the best. We have reduced the break even [at PSA] by one million invoices (cars), which makes a stronger company... We will apply the same lessons and best practises at Opel Vauxhall as we have at PSA."

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